Bahraich:

A man has been arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife, a village head, and slicing her ear with a sickle, police said on Wednesday.

Balram, who was arrested on a complaint from Shridevi has as many as 14 cases lodged against him, Superintendent of Police (SP) Ghanshyam Chaurasiya said.

“We have arrested Balram. The victim is the head of village Patkhauli,” he said and added that he has been booked by the Ikauna police for attempt to murder under section 109 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

In her complaint, Shridevi claimed that a fortnight ago, Balram hit her, inflicted injuries with a burning piece of plastic and locked her in a room.

On Tuesday, she alleged he attacked her with a sickle and cut her ear, police said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Pratapgarh:

A married woman was tied to a tree, her hair chopped and face blackened on orders of a panchayat for allegedly having an affair with a man from her village, police said on Monday.

According to police, 15 people have been arrested in connection with the incident which took place in Chhotki Ibrahimpur village under Hatigaon police station area here on Sunday. Five other accused are on the run.

The woman’s husband lived in Mumbai and returned home after he found out about his wife’s affair. They have three children together, police said.

On Sunday, a panchayat was called in the presence of the woman’s family. On the panchayat’s orders, the woman was tied to a tree, her hair chopped off and her face blackened with soot, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) (Western), Sanjay Rai said.

When the woman’s lover, the father of four children, tried to save her, he was thrashed. He managed to flee from the spot, the ASP said.

After receiving information about the incident, police personnel reached the spot and brought the woman to the police station, Rai said.

Based on a complaint by police station in-charge Inspector Nand Lal Singh, a case was registered against 20 people and 15 of them were arrested. Efforts are being made to arrest the remaining five, the officer said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ballia:

Two school students were killed and 13 injured when their pickup van rammed into a truck parked in the Phephana area of this Uttar Pradesh district on Saturday morning, an official said.

The victims, aged between 12 and 17 years, were from a private school, Ballia District Magistrate (DM) Praveen Kumar told PTI.

According to police, the driver of the overspeeding pickup van lost control of the vehicle, which collided with a truck parked on the roadside near Kapuri Narayanpur village on the Ballia-Phephana road.

Yash Pratap Singh (16) died on the spot while Vishal Pratap Singh (17) succumbed to his injuries while being taken to hospital, the DM said.

All the injured were rushed to the district hospital, he said, adding that the condition of two is critical.

Senior police and administrative officers visited the hospital.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Lucknow:

Top BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh will meet this morning to review preparations for the upcoming by-elections to 10 assembly seats, the first polls in the state after a sharp drop in the ruling party’s tally in the recent Lok Sabha election.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called a meeting of the cabinet ministers at 11 am at his Lucknow residence. The meeting assumes significance as the BJP has been assessing its electoral strategies in view of the unsatisfactory results in the Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP won just 33 of UP’s 80 Lok Sabha seats – behind main rival Samajwadi Party’s 37 – despite bagging a whopping majority in the 2022 assembly elections.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya met BJP chief J P Nadda last evening. He left the BJP headquarters without speaking to the media.

Reports suggest Mr Nadda may also meet UP BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, but there has been no official word on the meeting’s agenda.

Mr Adityanath had at a conclave blamed “over-confidence” for the poor electoral performance in the Lok Sabha elections and suggested the BJP could not effectively counter the INDIA bloc’s campaign. Mr Nadda was present at the conclave.

Not just in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP saw an overall drop in seats as it failed to secure a majority in the Lok Sabha elections 2024.

To discuss its performance, the party has called all its chief ministers and their deputies to Delhi at the end of this month. Modi 3.0’s first budget and the action plan for the first 100 days will also be discussed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and BJP chief JP Nadda are among the senior BJP leaders set to attend the meeting.

Bijnor:

A woman was booked for allegedly killing a 3-year-old boy by throwing him in a pond following a quarrel with his mother in Bijnor district, police said on Saturday.

Police identified the accused as Roshan, a resident of Qazijadgan, they said.

On Friday afternoon, the child’s mother, Tarannum, filed a complaint at the Chandpur police station reporting that her son Arsalan had gone missing from home, Superintendent of Police (SP) Neeraj Kumar Jadaun said.

The police registered a case and launched an investigation. The family suspected Roshan, their neighbour who quarrelled with the mother, Jadaun said.

The police took Roshan into their custody and questioned her. She told the police that after the argument with the victim’s mother, she picked Arsalan and threw him into the pond, Jadaun added.

The police recovered Arsalan’s body and sent it for post-mortem. Further investigation is underway, the SP said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Bhole Baba aka Narayan Saakar Hari is likely to be arrested soon after more than 100 people died in a stampede at his ‘satsang’ (religious congregation) in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras on Tuesday. The self-styled godman, whose original name is Suraj Pal, is believed to be at his ‘ashram’ in Mainpuri, about 100 km from the Phulrai village, where he held the event attended by thousands of devotees.

Many senior police officials have reached the Hathras stampede site, while others are at his ashram, the Ram Kutir Charitable Trust. Besides police personnel, an NDTV team at the ashram also saw his devotees gathering in large numbers.

In Hathras, a forensic unit and a dog squad are at the stampede site. Teams of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are also present.

At least 121 people, including over 100 women and seven children, were killed in the Hathras stampede. The Uttar Pradesh government said most of the people who died in the stampede have been identified.

A compensation of Rs 2 lakh each has been announced for the families of the dead and Rs 50,000 for the injured.

President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have expressed their condolences to the families of the victims.

How Hathras Stampede Happened

Officials said the place where the Hathras stampede happened was too small to accommodate the crowd that had gathered there on Tuesday afternoon. A woman who attended the ‘satsang’ said the stampede broke out as the crowd began to leave.

After the ‘satsang’, devotees rushed to touch the feet of the self-styled guru, causing a big crowd build-up in a small area, officials said.

Devotees had come to the ‘satsang’ from various districts of Uttar Pradesh as well as neighboring states.

A high-level committee has been formed to investigate the incident.

The panel will be headed by the Additional Director General of Police, Agra, and the Aligarh Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said.

Case Against Hathras Satsang Organisers

A case has been filed against the ‘satsang organisers’ in Hathras, officials said.

According to the FIR, permission was granted for 80,000 people but more than 2.5 lakh devotees attended the event.

“Due to the uncontrollable crowd leaving the venue, devotees sitting on the ground were crushed. On the other side of the road, the crowd running in the water and mud-filled fields was forcibly stopped by the organizing committee with sticks, due to which the pressure of the crowd kept increasing and women, children, and men kept getting crushed,” the FIR said.

“The police and administrative officials present on the spot made every possible effort and sent the injured people to the hospital with the available resources. But no cooperation was given by the organizers,” the FIR added.

They have been charged under sections 105, 110, 126 (2), 223, and 238 of the new criminal code Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Godman Behind Hathras ‘Satsang’

Self-styled guru Narayan Saakar Hari has often claimed that he has worked with the Intelligence Bureau. He also told his devotees that he was inclined towards spirituality even when he was working and had resigned in the 1990s to pursue the spiritual path.

Born in Bahadur Nagari village in Uttar Pradesh’s Etah district to a farmer, Nanne Lal, and Katori Devi, he completed his initial studies in the village.

He was reportedly a head constable with the Local Intelligence Unit of the UP police. He left his police job in 1999 and then changed his name to Narayan Saakar Hari.

He claims he began working for the Intelligence Bureau after college and turned towards spirituality during his time there.

Hathras Stampede Helpline Numbers

The Uttar Pradesh government has launched two helpline numbers — 05722227041 and 05722227042 — after the Hathras stampede incident.

Lucknow:

The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal from the Tata Sons to build a ‘museum of temples’ in Ayodhya at a cost of Rs 650 crore, officials said. Sharing details about the decision, Tourism Minister Jaivir Singh said the tourism department would provide the company land for the international-level museum on a 90-year lease for a token money of Re 1.

“Tata Sons had proposed the project through the central government, offering to build the museum at a cost of Rs 650 crore under its corporate social responsibility fund,” Mr Singh said at a press meet in Lucknow after the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The cabinet also okayed the company’s proposal for other development works in the temple town for additional Rs 100 crore, he added.

Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies.

Other proposals approved during the cabinet meeting included the launch of helicopter services in Lucknow, Prayagraj and Kapilvastu under the public-private partnership (PPP) model by building helipads, Mr Singh said.

The cabinet also cleared a proposal to develop dormant heritage buildings into tourist spots, the minister said.

Three such heritage buildings – Kothi Roshan Dulha in Lucknow, Barsana Jal Mahal in Mathura and Shukla Talab (pond) in Kanpur – were selected for development as tourist spots, he said. He added that researchers would be selected under the Mukhya Mantri tourism fellowship programme for the purpose.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Lucknow:

Not content with being arrested for thrashing a policeman, two men from Uttar Pradesh decided to take things up a notch and fired at three police personnel after snatching their rifles while being taken for a medical check-up. A sub-inspector and two constables were injured and the two men were also shot in the leg.

After a child was run over by a speeding bus in Mahoba, about 260 km from Lucknow, on Monday, a policeman who was part of a team which had gone to disperse an angry crowd and ease a traffic jam had been beaten up by some people. The other members of the team had fled. The police had later registered a case and made five arrests. 

When they were being taken to a hospital for a medical check-up on Tuesday, the accused and the police personnel, from Panwari police station in Mahoba, stopped for a washroom break. This was when two of the five accused – 45-year-old Parshuram and 22-year-old Monu – snatched the rifles of two of the police personnel and opened fire. 

Sub-inspector Surendra and constables Ankit Singh and Mithun were injured and the two men were shot in their legs when the police personnel returned fire. All five have been admitted to a hospital.

Mahoba Superintendent of Police Aparna Gupta said, “A case had been registered against five people for misbehaving with, and beating up, a policeman on Monday. The sub-inspector was trying to ease a traffic jam when he was beaten up. They were being taken for a medical check-up when they snatched the rifles of some police personnel and opened fire. A sub-inspector and two constables have suffered minor injuries.”